I've always been inspired by the heroism of the characters. As well as the psychological effect and bond among soldiers. What makes men risk their lives?

I've also always been interested in the difference between WWII/Korean vets and Vietnam vets. I know my Pop never liked to to discuss his time in WWII and Korea. Sure he would tell me he serveed with so and so or was in this battle. Bit never talk about the horror or fears. He was a medic in Korea. Yet Vietnam vets are much more open about their experiences.

A list of must have movies in my collection:

Saving Private Ryan
Band of Brothers
The Best Years of our Lives
The Deer Hunter
Tweleve O'Clock High
Memphis Bell
Battleground
The Thin Red Line
Platoon
Mash (reminds me of my Navy days)
All Quiet on the Western Front

THE BOYS IN COMPANY C (Sidney J. Furie, 1978, USA) Like Kubrick’s masterpiece FULL METAL JACKET, Director Sidney J. Furie is not concerned with reporting historical fact but instead depicts the nihilistic schism between soldier and civilian; the absolute destructive madness purchased wholesale at the cost of our moral identity. Exploiting the classic film noir voice-over, the story is told in retrospect through diary entries of the naïve and uncorrupted Private Alvin Foster whose fate, like Joe Gillis in SUNSET BOULEVARD, has already been decided. We follow a handful of civilians who, in only six weeks of basic training, are morally deconstructed and reborn as murderous objects, weapons of flesh, blood, and bone. Their Drill Instructor is SSGT. Loyce (R. Lee Ermey) who browbeats them into submission, who must prepare them for the brutality and unimaginable shocks of combat and erase their individuality: he must make them Marines. The characters begin as stereotypes: the athlete, the drug dealing black man, the journalist, the tough talking street kid from Brooklyn, the hippie, and the incompetent Commander. When we first meet our protagonists, they regurgitate inane and clichéd dialogue as they bid farewell to loved ones and spout patriotic jargon: these spoken beliefs will soon become ethical contradictions, which will exemplify their fiery baptism and the realization (and abandonment) of their naïve righteousness. But Furie doesn’t rely on our universal understanding of these characters, he subverts the paradigm and creates complex individuals who don’t react as we expect: this is antithetical to the Kubrickian convention of dehumanization. The scenes In Country are explosively detailed supporting the visual reality of Vietnam. The plot itself is a metaphor defining the absurdity of the Vietnam War: if the soldiers beat the Dragons (a South Vietnamese elite team) in a soccer match, they can spend the remainder of their tour in relative comfort, playing exhibition games all over southeast Asia. There is a caveat: they must lose every game for propaganda purposes, to instill a sense of national pride in the native population. The soldiers must sacrifice pride and honor, not only their own but every American soldier who is fighting and dying in this awful conflict, or face assignment to the meat grinder at Khe Sanh. The choice is really no choice at all: they tame the Dragons. The final battle’s machineguns chatter accusations and mortars punctuate their sentence, and one ingenuous soldier makes the final sacrifice for his friends: his final words a grenade's sharp irony.(A)

Going through the war genre today and ran across "Zulu" staring Michael Caine. No extraneous story lines in this film. Here is the synopis:
"Based on a real-life battle, Zulu follows a group of British soldiers (led by Michael Caine, in his first starring role) stationed in South Africa who must defend their tiny outpost against an attack by an overwhelming force of Zulu warriors. Outnumbered 40 to 1, the stoic British soldiers are still ready to fight to the finish. Richard Burton narrates this epic war film shot on location in Natal."

There was a war film that came out the same year and about the same time as "The Thin Red Line". I cannot recall the title but it received more publicity. I watched this film and shortly after I watched "The Thin Red Line". The latter film lingers in my memory. It was a disturbing story of war and worth putting in your queue (which I think I will do). There is a scene with John C. Reilly on top of dead and dying Japanese soldiers that I will never forget. I like the tag line of this movie: "Every man fights his own war".

PATTON (Franklin J. Scaffner, 1970, USA) George C. Scott’s bravura performance channels the deified ghost of PATTON: he actually seems possessed by the reincarnated spirit of the legendary general. The film is not interested in examining Patton as a complex human being; there are no family scenes, conversations with loved ones, or any exposition concerning his life outside of the military. The entire film concerns itself with the narcissistic legend, not war’s brutal reality. It is a subtle performance because Scott is still able to bring an empathetic human element to a caricature, to breathe life into the rigid stone bust of an icon. The film begins with adrenaline pumping nationalistic machismo, a glorified warmongering speech to his troops as they prepare to face the Axis for the first time. A huge American flag hangs behind him, showing that the country is always larger than the single man…even Patton. Obviously, this in dire contrast to Hitler and his Fascist regime, where the man is the country: this theme is referenced near the film’s end. The screenplay touches upon important aspects of Patton’s wartime record, both good and bad: his success at El Guettar, the invasion of Sicily, his egomaniacal desires at the cost of precious lives, the public slapping of a traumatized soldier, his miraculous race to Bastogne, and his controversial remarks about Russia after the German surrender. The film’s major fault is that it reinforces the legend at the cost of fact; it’s a shallow reflection of the true person that lurks beneath a chest full of medals. We see Patton through his own eyes as he looks in the mirror; we need to discover the private man who stares back. The bloodless war scenes fail to capture the reality of war and rely on the deafening shriek of tanks and bombs like aural shrapnel. Modern tanks, planes, jeeps, and trucks are inauthentic simulacra that diffuse the narrative energy. The excellent final scene shows the tired general walking his dog, and the camera makes him physically diminish and become insubstantial, as the windmill’s shadow falls upon this tiny figure. Coppola believes Patton was born for war and, like King Arthur, will one day rise again to save the world. (B)

Above are actual images I scanned from the original photographs. These images exists nowhere else in the world, though similiar ones where taken from slightly different perspectives. An aquaintance at work handed me photos that her grandfather had taken as a Tank Commander in Patton's 4th Armored Division in the first few moments after liberating Ohrdruf. These shocking images bring the brutality of war into sharp focus. I have a few more that I will occasionaly post, if interested.

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